


Touches of Mystery

by Providentially_Demonic



Category: Mystery Skulls (Band), Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble Collection, I Blame Tumblr, Inspired by Music, Multi, Unrequited, Vent Drabbles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-20
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-16 10:11:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 6,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8098159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Providentially_Demonic/pseuds/Providentially_Demonic
Summary: A series of drabbles written for the Mystery Skulls fandom. Some were venting, so expect a full gamut of emotions.





	1. Chapter 1

[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA3ohIr8WL0)

[Pity, maiden, for your folly ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA3ohIr8WL0)

[

To venture in these woods alone

Mercy lives not in the holly

No compassion from the stones

](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA3ohIr8WL0)

Vivi was panting desperately. Breath rasping in her lungs, she ran for all she was worth. Brambles tore her stockings to rags and left red welts in her skin. But she dared not stop. She’d lost a shoe in the creek, and stones bit into her uncovered foot. 

_Almost…_

One last sprint and she was past the edge of the trees, light stabbing eyes that had grown accustomed to the gloom.

A leap and she stood on a stone altar above the body shackled there. Her grin was wild, fey and dangerous. _“No one_ kills my friends on my watch!”


	2. Chapter 2

[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyf69qOJdu4)

[You poured the gasoline](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyf69qOJdu4)

[

I drove into the flames

History will hate us 

But they’ll never forget our names

](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyf69qOJdu4)

He has never been honest in his life. He is a master of illusion, a trickster and a deceiver all wrapped up in fur and swirling tails. He has been a beggar and a monster, a thief and a light to guide a lost soul out of darkness, sometimes all on the same day, He has been the hunter and he is the hunted. 

He is ageless and terrible, and old and wise.

He has worn many masks, and spun a thousand lies.

But three souls have walked through the flames and the lies to the heart of him, and to them he will always be what they ask of him, for they have offered love and Mystery finds that is the best truth of all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [this](http://writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com/post/152331408081/theres-a-ghost-in-your-home-but-instead-of) prompt from writing-prompt-s

Arthur had gotten used to the fact that Lewis hated him but wouldn’t kill him because _Vivi._ Literally, Vivi was the only thing that had kept Arthur alive for the past two months, he was sure, since the vengeance spirit who had once been his best friend had come back. Even though they had explained the circumstances of the cave until they were blue in the face, Lewis was not going to let his revenge slide so easily.

At first Lewis had taken to trying to scare the hell out of Arthur, appearing through walls and floor, rattling things in the dead of the night, whispering too faintly to be heard, but after one incident with the neighbors that had resulted in old Mrs. Stewart needing more anxiety meds than Arthur, Vivi had forbidden those tricks.

Then it had been minor pranks, sugar in the pepper container, the lid of the salt shaker unscrewed; the toilet seat mysteriously being up when he’d just put it down. After the fourth day of the refrigerator magnets rearranging themselves to spell various threats on Arthur’s swiftly deteriorating sanity, Vivi had put a stop to that one. The smaller pranks continued until Lewis made the mistake of screwing with the coffee maker. After a blistering tirade of rage about Vivi needing her four cups a morning, those had stopped as well.

Arthur wasn’t sure what Lewis would try next but he was waiting for it every day with bated breath. So far though, all that had happened were glares and very prominent ‘I’m-watching-you’ moments. After a full day of Lewis hovering distractingly near at hand, Arthur retreated to his room/workshop to tinker with his arm.

He stopped in the doorway and stared, aghast. 

_“LEWIS PEPPER!”_ he bellowed, storming through the apartment with fists clenched and rage in his gold eyes. “As soon as I figure out a way to catch you I’m giving you the ghostly equivalent of an atomic wedgie! You won’t sit right for _years!”_ It was the most life any of them had seen out of him in over a month.

Vivi and Mystery peered through Arthur’s door to see what the fuss was about. Instead of Arthur’s carefully controlled chaos, where he could put his hands on any tool or object he needed in second, the entire room had been transformed into something out of a hardware store, tools hanging in neat arrays on disturbingly purple pegboards, drafting papers rolled up neatly and stowed in purple cubbies, the drafting tools themselves neatly stacked in (also purple) bins on the desk. Books were shelved neatly, including the ones that had been holding up the leg of the desk that Galaham had chewed through, replaced by a block of wood that glowed a faint purple.

Arthur continued raging through the apartment after the elusive ghost and Vivi and Mystery just shared a look.

“Do you think,” Vivi asked at last. “They’ll ever figure out this is the pretending-to-be-grown-up equivalent of schoolyard pulling on a girl’s pigtails when you have a crush on her?”

“I doubt it,” Mystery replied at long last, flopping down on his butt and scratching casually behind an ear. “Mentally, they never grew out of that stage. I dare say one of us will have to take matters into _her_ own hands to fix the situation.”  


	4. Chapter 4

[— Like I know my own mind,](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D0RICXIgAr2M&t=Zjk4OWI2NDFmMTVjZmFmMDFlNGIwM2JjYjEyNTM5Y2IxYmFjNzQwNCw5d3pGaU5wWQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A5C_n3FhkDOWPoqw7gYOJBQ&m=1)  
You will never find anyone as trusting or as kind  
If I tell her that I love him—

Lewis was sweet, and everything anyone could want in a best friend, a boyfriend, or a son. He trusted in his friends, in his family and in his own mind. Never a moment of doubt, that’s him. Learned to cook to help out at his parent’s family-owned restaurant. Fell in love with Vivi the moment he met her, his eyes lighting up with a joy he couldn’t contain.

He’s good with kids, he’d have to be with three sisters. He’s strong and fearless and nothing phases him. He’s perfect in so many ways and no one in their right mind could resist his charm.

And he loves Vivi. And that’s why Arthur will _never_ speak.


	5. Chapter 5

[Mortal Kings are ruling castles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qFF2v8VsaA)

Welcome to my world of fun

Liars settle into sockets

Flip the switch and watch them run...

Time had no meaning anymore, only rage and pain to mark its passing. He had almost had his revenge, almost— 

And then she had been there and there was no rage, only her, soothing blue and love that filled every corner of his being, pacifying the anger, and quelling the flames of his hatred. For one moment, as his anchor had floated toward her, toward her welcoming hands, everything had been better. For one glorious second, he was not what he had become.

Then— that bastard had pulled her away, fleeing, and his heart had fallen and broken. Rage had once again ruled, fury boiled in the blood he no longer had, and he had literally exploded in untempered wrath.

And they had fled from him...

Sorrow had replaced the fury and he no longer had the strength to even exist, retreating into the bit of metal that was his anchor... until that strange creature, woman or tree, he could not tell, had awakened him. And the fury was back.

She had done him one favor, offering him a way to find them again. Where Vivi went _(love, peace and that feeling of rightness)_ so too would be Arthur _(rage, hate, pain, betrayal)_ and he could find them both. He would take from Arthur what Arthur had stolen from him and... and— he wasn’t sure after that, only that he needed Vivi. She could fix what Arthur had made of him. She had always been able to make things right.

So he set out in search of betrayal and love, knowing he would find them together.


	6. Chapter 6

[“Thine eyes betray confusion  
Am I friend or am I fiend?”](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DO8DJO6m-Qrc&t=NjE0ZGJhNTQ2MmVjMDNiNjhjNmE2YmFiYmU3Y2ZmYjViODQwYjJiYiw5d3pGaU5wWQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A5C_n3FhkDOWPoqw7gYOJBQ&m=1)

Arthur couldn’t breathe, his lungs seizing with panic. The huge figure looming over him, wreathed in flames, was so unlike what he dared hope. But it had to be. There was no one else it could be. He’d been searching so long…

His throat closed, and he could only squeak out a single wavering word. “Lewis?”

A slow nod and Arthur couldn’t even draw another breath. This was Lewis, his best friend, this spectre of fury and flames that seemed to want him dead.

Tears spilled down his cheeks and Arthur whispered, smiling sadly. “I finally found you. At _last._ ”


	7. Chapter 7

[Love is the ghost, haunting your head](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZ77tKGDRByY&t=ZjkxMDUzN2E1MTIyMmRiYWY2Y2UxNWY5YWQwNWFjMDUyNzNhNzg0ZixRMjE0U3JvMw%3D%3D&b=t%3A5C_n3FhkDOWPoqw7gYOJBQ&m=1)  
Love is the killer you thought was your friend  
Love is the creature who lives in the dark  
Sneak up and stick you  
And painfully pick you apart.

Arthur thought he could get away with it. He thought no one would notice.

After all, what was he but the third wheel, the mechanic who put the van back together, the entirely unneeded coward, who would run away from his own shadow it they would let him.

But they wouldn’t.

Well, at least Vivi wouldn’t.

Lewis… _(well, after their second encounter, he was sure the raging spirit was Lewis)_ Lewis wanted him dead. He’d made that painfully clear.

Arthur wasn’t sure he knew why, but… it was Lewis and if he thought Arthur deserved to die, Arthur was sure there was a damned good reason for it. Arthur had only the faint hope that this might soothe the raging, fiery soul that had once been his best friend.

So that was why Arthur was out here, standing on the side of the road, after having snuck away from the hotel where Vivi and Mystery slept peacefully, staring into the darkness and waiting for his death to come calling.

So he walked and spoke quietly to the darkness. “Here I am, big guy. Come find me. I know you can. I could never hide anything from you.” He laughed a little breathlessly, a humorless sound that drifted away into the silence. “I only have one thing to ask of you. Just, let my death be enough. I don’t know if it’s enough to calm you down, but just— when I-I’m gone, look out for Vivi and Mystery, will you? She doesn’t remember you and she— well, she’ll need someone to look after her… and there was never anyone better at it than you.”

Headlights in a garish shade of purple bore down on him and Arthur smiled, stretching out his arms to welcome his best friend and his death, all wrapped up in one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First time I heard this song, I instantly thought of Lewis and Arthur.


	8. Cold Shivers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was originally written in response to [this](http://ectoimp.tumblr.com/post/147690222619/bonesblues-squigglydigg-ectoimp-you-ever) post on tumblr, mentioning that what if Lewis gave off those creepy ghost vibes that people always talk about in ghosthunting shows. All credit to Ectoimp, bonesblue and Squiggly for the idea.

Arthur had long since gotten used to the aura Lewis gave off, a creepy feeling like the world was looming over him and breathing down his neck. Not to say he enjoyed it, and it did tend to feed his paranoid tendencies quite a bit, but he’d grown accustomed to the sensation. Vivi, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy it, delighting in the shivery tingle crawling over her skin, shuddering with a wide smile and sparkling eyes.

Lewis tried hard to control it, and he could _to a degree_. The longer someone was around him, the less effect it had, and he no longer made Arthur run screaming from the room in instinctive terror.

But it wasn’t under his conscious control, and Arthur could always tell the moment it really hit a client. The way the hairs on their arms would stand on end and they would instinctively flinch from nothing. It was one of the reasons that they always came in as a group, so that no one could pinpoint exactly who was giving off the creepy-as-hell vibe. And it worked for the most part, most clients were glad to leave them to do their work in peace, desperate to get away from the shuddery feeling in the air. And frankly, who _would_ suspect affable, friendly Lewis to be putting off that kind of vibe? How could anyone that friendly and utterly harmless-seeming be the cause of that cold shiver of terror?

Of course, it had its drawbacks too, with Lewis close, the sensation of his ghostly presence would cover the aura of other haunts, diluting their own spectral fear with his.

But it did come in handy with recalcitrant clients, who didn’t want to pay for the services rendered. If they proved rude or otherwise _— less-than-pleasant—_ Lewis would excuse himself. He’d only go as far as the other side of the door, though, turning invisible and returning to loom over whoever was giving them trouble about their fees. After a minute or two of him breathing down their necks invisibly, they usually forked over the cash without further trouble.

So all in all, with a steady paycheck, Arthur could live with the shivers.

And since Vivi lived _for_ the shivers, the point was moot there.

Hey, whatever worked.


	9. Is it Tomorrow Yet?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A slightly overlong drabble written as a birthday present to my very, very dear friend Tristan_ATK (Arthur-Tristan-Kingsmen on tumblr).
> 
> Set after the gang has gotten back together, but things are a still a bit rocky between Arthur and Lewis.

If he could just get out of the apartment before anyone noticed, Arthur had every intention of spending the entire day at the garage. Lance knew what today was, but he would never force Arthur into doing anything. He could just hide out there, work on some cars and go back home long after today had ended. He could placate Vivi with the excuse he had gotten caught up in some project or something. She’d be grumpy at him, but once it was over, nothing she could do about it. To be honest, he’d be happy if she forgot it entirely… _not_ that she would. After losing her memory of the cave, Vivi would be damned if she forgot anything ever again.

Lewis… well, Lewis would do what he would do. Arthur hoped if he avoided him today, Lewis would just leave be. He didn’t want anything but to be out of Lewis’s sight for the day. Lewis didn’t need any reminders of what today was. He just needed to get out of the building.

He’d almost made it too, but Vivi pounced him before he managed to get down the hall. _“Happy Birthday!”_ She caroled in his ear, flinging her arms around his neck.

Arthur tried to duck the kiss she planted on his cheek, but she was having none of it and got him in a headlock until she had managed to leave a print of blue lip-gloss on his cheek. _“Yeah,_ yeah… I gotta get to work, Vivi.”

“Oh, no you don’t, buster! Lance gave you the day off.” She poked his nose. “I know. I made sure.”

Arthur winced.

“Vivi… I really don’t want to do anything today…” Arthur protested, but she had a firm grip on his arm.

“Shoosh, you. You need to relax. You’ve been wound up tighter than a jack-in-the box.”

“M’fine.” Arthur said automatically and then winced the instant the sound left his lips.

Vivi whipped around to glare at him. “Oh, no you did _not_ just say that.”

Arthur ducked his head, red coloring his cheeks. “Sorry.”

Vivi continued frowning, but at last sighed and relented. “Alright, you get a free pass, but only for today. You know better.” She tugged his arm, “Now, c’mon, I got you something.”

Arthur let himself be led to the couch, where Vivi plopped a package in his lap. He surreptitiously looked around for Lewis, but saw no sign of him. Maybe the ghost was avoiding him too. It wouldn’t surprise him.

Vivi had gotten him a copy of the new Pokemon game and a Pikachu wallet and she looked relieved when he grinned at her and thanked her. “Oh, Whew… I was hoping you hadn’t gotten it for yourself yet.”

“Nah, I haven’t had time. Thank you. I mean it. I love it.”

Vivi reached out to hug him, but paused, wrinkling her pert nose. “Ooh, _ugh,_ what is that smell? Did you forget to take out the garbage?

Arthur shook his head. “Took it out last night before bed.” He sniffed and his eyes widened. He’d know that smell anywhere.

Rising to his feet, Arthur headed toward the kitchen, the source of said odor, Vivi on his heels. He froze in the doorway.

On the table, still sizzling on the pizza stone, was his favorite pizza, the infamous Surf’s-up-Surprise. When he was nineteen, the only pizza joint that made the thing had gone out of business. Lewis had hunted down an employee and gotten the recipe and after a little work of his own had made it into something amazing. He’d made one for Arthur’s twentieth birthday and for every one since, save for _one_ , last year’s, when Lewis had still been— _missing._

Seeing it there, sitting on the table… maybe it wasn’t forgiveness, or an apology for attempting to kill him, but for the moment, it was everything he needed.

Scrubbing an arm across suspiciously watery eyes, he addressed the conspicuously empty kitchen. “T-thanks, big guy.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this one is based on [this sketchdump post](http://ectoimp.tumblr.com/post/156708415929/half-thought-out-idea-that-i-felt-like-rough) by Ectoimp in which Lewis confronted Arthur at the mansion in his human guise instead of flaming rage skeleton and how things would have been different had that happened.

Lewis was ready for Arthur, the mood and set-up perfect for scaring the hell out of the little betrayer. His rage had been tempered down to a fine, thin blade, ready to cut the confession of his sins out of Arthur’s mouth.

At least that _was_ the plan.

He felt the trapdoor release and got into position, letting the flames die out so all would be darkness when Arthur landed. He closed the coffin and waited with the equivalent of bated breath for the thud that signaled his prey was here.

He heard Arthur’s stifled yelp of pain as he landed and caused the torches to flare into life. He wanted his former best friend to see his death coming for him. He heard Arthur’s terrified _“Oh, shit, ohshitohshit….”_ and relished in it.

He stepped out of the coffin, ready to raise his arm and point the finger of blame at his murderer.

A hundred and forty pounds of gleeful mechanic hit him in the chest, arms wrapped around his chest and squeezing like they might never let go. _“Oh my god,_ Lewis it _is_ you, I mean the whole spook house fit your aesthetic and all, but I wasn’t sure it was you, and _oh my god,_ you _really_ are here! We’ve been looking for you _all over_ the damned place, I mean, well, I have ‘cause Vivi can’t even remember you at all. _**Vivi!”**_ Arthur released his hug and latched onto Lewis’s hand, tugging so insistently that Lewis was pulled along from where he hovered a few inches off the floor. “You _gotta_ come with me to find Vivi, maybe then she’ll get her memory back, I mean she doesn’t even know you in photos. Half the time it’s like she doesn’t even see you in the pictures, so that’s gotta be some kinda magic, so maybe seeing you will break it and she’ll remember you.”

Arthur took off at a jog, pulling Lewis along before he could even think to formulate a response.

“Oh, man, you have no idea how good it is to see you, big guy, I’ve been searching for you everywhere since I got out of the hospital. Vivi couldn’t remember you, much less the cave and the doctors think it’s traumatic amnesia, but I don’t know what happened to cause it, I mean I woke up in the hospital down an arm and with you missing and no explanation at all—”

_**What—?** _

_Down an arm?_ Lewis lost track of Arthur’s babbling to look down at the metal hand latched around his wrist.

 _Something_ wasn’t adding up. Arthur wasn’t talking like a man who had laughed as he shoved his best friend off a cliff. He needed the whole story.

So he let Arthur pull him along, hoping that he might lead him to some answers.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of a series of [drabble prompts](https://providentially-demonic.tumblr.com/post/158570900125/drabble-challenge-1-100) that I decided to do to try and shake loose the cobwebs of struggling with fic that doesn't want to cooperate.
> 
> This one is 32. "You stayed home last weekend, come on. You’re coming this time."

Arthur tried to tug his arm free of Vivi’s grasp, but her fingers were like steel cables. “Vivi…”

“Don’t you ‘Vivi” me, bud!” Vivi glared at him over the rim of her glasses, blue eyes accusatory. “You have put us off every single time we’ve asked you to come along lately. We’re getting tired of it.”

Strong hands closed around his biceps from behind and Arthur yelped as his feet left the floor. “She’s not taking no for an answer this time, _hermano._ And neither am I.”

Arthur found himself slung over a broad shoulder in a fireman’s carry, thumping his fist fruitlessly against a muscular arm. “Put me down, you big purple goofball! I don’t wanna.”

“You don’t wanna…?” Vivi’s tone was dangerous. “You don’t wanna hang out with your besties in the whole wide world when they have made the time to drag your scrawny backside out to get some actual daylight?”

“Vivi…” Lewis didn’t raise his voice but Vivi stopped fussing at once.

“Arthur,” Lewis’s voice rumbled through where Arthur’s stomach was pressed against his shoulders. “You are not intruding or anything. We made this time so we could all hang out together. All of us. Not just me and Vivi, with you tagging along. For all of us. We’re going to the park, playing with Mystery until he gives up and eating way too much grilled food; just having fun. All of us, together, okay?”

Arthur could only sag in defeat, something in his chest loosening at the words. “Fine, fine. But I _can_ walk.”

“Nah, I like you there.”

“Not going to fit in the van this way!” Arthur yelped as they headed for the battered van and the white dog bouncing impatiently by it.

Lewis shrugged under him. “Ah we’ll figure it out.”

“Dammit, Lewis!”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of a series of [drabble prompts](https://providentially-demonic.tumblr.com/post/158570900125/drabble-challenge-1-100) that I decided to do to try and shake loose the cobwebs of struggling with fic that doesn't want to cooperate.
> 
> This one is 89. Omg, this is my favorite song. Dance with me!

It was late, the sun reflecting orange on the waters of the lake as it sank behind the hills. Arthur was napping on the grass, his head pillowed on Mystery’s side.

Lewis was packing up to leave, but Vivi was whirling lightly over the grass, humming along to some imagined tune. She looked innocent and adorable, bare feet flying through the grass. Lewis could watch her for hours. Smiling at his sappy side, he went back to packing up, loading the cooler into the back of the van.

Tiny hands caught his wrists. “OMG, this is my favorite song. Dance with me!”

Lewis looked down in confusion.

Vivi tugged an earbud out of her ear and pulled the cord out of her phone. The bouncy strains of [“Shut up and dance with me”](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DAvLJTmu248g&t=ZjA0NWE5NmNhOTNjZDYxNjYxOTQxNTc3N2ZkNzljYzRiMGRiM2VlYyxuT1FRbHJ3cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A5C_n3FhkDOWPoqw7gYOJBQ&p=https%3A%2F%2Fprovidentially-demonic.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F158573332440%2Fdrabble-89-lewis-and-vivi-please&m=1) drifted out of the phone.

Vivi tugged his arms and Lewis could only laugh delightedly, following her as she sprang across the grass like a fawn, whirling and bare feet kicking up bits of grass and dry leaves.

And if he spent more of the dance staring at her than actually matching her steps, well, he couldn’t complain too much, even when she tripped over his feet and knocked them both over in the grass. Sprawling across his chest, she laughed uproariously. “It’s _“dance with me,”_ not _“fall **on** me, _ ” Lew!”

“Too late,” he corrected with a laugh of his own. “I’ve already fallen hard.”

A sleepy gold eye watched them with amusement. “Dorks,” was the pronouncement, punctuated by a soft ‘ _uurrff’_ from Mystery.


	13. Down Among the Dead Men

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally written for phantoms-lair's birthday (since I was very late getting her present sent) and combines two of her favorite fandom's-- Mystery Skulls Animated and the Book of Life movie.

There’s not much that can kill a ghost.

The last thing he saw was the wall of water rushing at him and him desperately trying to reach Vivi and Arthur. Then there was only darkness.

And then, music, the soft strains of a guitar playing a melancholy tune. Lewis opened his eyes and sat up, looking desperately around for Arthur and Vivi. “Vi! Artie!!  _Where are you?!”_

“Calmly now. You must have had quite a shock.”

Lewis whipped around and found himself staring into a skeletal face, painted like the sugar skulls mama had given him as a child. He backpedaled with a yelp and ran into strong arms that supported him. “Easy there, _compadre.”_

Lewis turned to look into a second bony face, this one equally brightly painted, and sporting an eyepatch and a— mustache? — how could a skull have a mustache?

“It’s alright,” the mustached skeleton told him, helping him straighten up. “You are fine now. Nothing left to worry about.”

“Joaquin, you know better than that,” A third voice cut in with a scolding laugh. The skeleton of a woman, with a tumble of dark brown hair and flaring skirts, came from behind the skeleton with the eyepatch, bony fingers brushing a painted cheekbone affectionately. “You heard him when he woke. There are others he was concerned about.”

The first skeleton had slung a guitar over his back and offered a hand to Lewis. “Welcome to the Land of the Remembered. I am Manolo, the lovely one is Maria and he of the magnificent mustache is Joaquin. You are?”

Land of the Remembered? Lewis could remember Mama telling him stories of the Land of the Remembered when he was a small child, but those had only been stories, right? “Um… Lewis. My name is Lewis.” He shook Manolo’s hand. “Please, have you seen the others? Arthur and Vivi! They were with me. I have to make sure they are okay!”

Maria laid a soothing hand on his forearm. “If they are here, they are like us, if not, they remain in the land of the living.”

Lewis shook his head in denial. “No, they  _have_  to be alive! I was with them and then I woke up here. I have to get back to them!”

He saw Manolo and Joaquin exchange glances. “How did you come to be here, Lewis?” Joaquin asked softly.

Lewis closed his eyes. “We were on a case, a sea-cave with stories of a ghost who either helped people who were drowning or drowned them itself. We found her, a woman who had been drowned by her father. She helped those who were like her, victims, and drowned those who, well, weren’t. She was talking to Arthur, and we were getting somewhere. Then— then something spooked her and she attacked.” Lewis didn’t have to think hard on what had upset her. He was a vengeance spirit, born of betrayal and anger, and it still showed. He had been something she had every right to be afraid of.

“A hungry ghost…” Maria breathed. “One who cannot let go of the hate that bound it.”

He opened his eyes, and found himself staring into his reflection in the blade of a sword, held by Joaquin. He looked different, more like he had in life. His face was painted the same as theirs, stylized swirls of purple and blue flames. Only his eyes remained the same, sparks of violet glowing in darkness. He cautiously felt his jaw, feeling the bone and paint beneath bony fingertips.

Maria reached over and lowered the sword. “You are in La Muerte’s realm now. If your friends are here, she will know. We can take you to her.”

“You don’t understand. I  _can’t_  be here. I don’t belong.” Lewis pled. “They don’t  _either!”_

Manolo put a firm hand on his shoulder. “Please, they will be happy here, if indeed they are here, as you will be too.”

Joaquin rested a hand over Manolo’s on his shoulder. “And if they are not here now, they will be eventually and you can all be together in peace.”

Lewis turned an anguished gaze on them. “How can I belong  _here_ when I was already dead, and _one_ of those hungry ghosts?!”

 **“What?”**  Joaquin blurted.

Lewis shrunk in on himself, moving away from them. “I  _can’t_ belong here. I died, and came back because I was a fool and thought Arthur would actually have killed me willingly. There was a demon— and it took Arthur’s body from him and used him to kill me. How can I belong when I was already dead?!” He twisted his fingers in his hair and tugged, wishing he still felt pain and went to his knees. “I’m one of those hungry ghosts. I came back with nothing but revenge in my heart. How can I—?”

A gentle hand caught his and untangled his fingers from his hair. “But you’re not that anymore, are you?” Maria knelt next to him. Her eyes were steady. “You wouldn’t be here now if you were.” Her voice rang with conviction. “Come. Come and let us take you to see La Muerte. If there is anything to know about your friends, she will know it.” She rose to her feet, not releasing his hands and used that hold to tug him back to his own. “We will take you to see her.”

Manolo’s hand came down on his shoulder. “Maria is right. You would not be here if you were one of those hungry ghosts. You care too much to be one.”

Joaquin said nothing, merely stepped back and lifted his arm to indicate the wide road that led to a place of dazzling color and music, where nothing seemed still, not even the road they stood on.

Maria led the way, strides sure and quick. They had to hurry to keep up as she rushed through what looked like the biggest festival Lewis had ever seen. It was a blur of colors and happy, smiling— if skeletal— faces. Some part of him wanted to just stop and soak in the beauty, but the greater part, the part that was worried over Arthur and Vivi, would not let him slow his pace.

Maria trotted up the steps of a place unlike anything Lewis had ever imagined in his wildest dreams, and through the doors. If the Land of the Remembered outside the doors was magical, this place was the pinnacle of all things magic.

Here Manolo smiled, and catching Maria’s hand, took the lead. Lewis could only follow, hoping at the end of this strange journey, he could find a way back to where he belonged, with Arthur and Vivi.

Manolo led the way to a huge banquet hall, where there was a table that could comfortably have seated the entire population of Tempo plus the rest of Texas. At the head of the table was a huge chair and in it sat a woman dressed in red, with a huge spreading hat crowned with candles and flowers and a genuinely sweet smile on her sugar skull face. She extended her hands in welcome. “Manolo, Maria, Joaquin… my friends. What brings you to my door?”

Lewis could not speak. Though her smile was sweet and her voice full of youth and laughter, he could not help feeling the immense age and power of the being in the body of a beautiful woman. She was something otherworldly, and at the same time as familiar as someone he had known all his life.

After a single look at his shell-shocked face, Maria, Manolo and Joaquin took it in turns to tell her what they knew about him and how he had come to be there in the Land of the Remembered.

At last she rose from her chair and came to tower over him. Lewis could not help shrinking back at the power she exhuded. Her smile widened and suddenly she was only a little taller than he. Bone-white hand came out to cup his cheeks. “Oh my child, you have nothing to fear from me. I had not expected to see you so soon.” She bent and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Go be with those that hold your heart anchored to where ever they are, be it world of the living or elsewhere. I will see you, and _them_ , again someday, I swear. I look forward to our reunion.”

Darkness returned, and the last thing he saw was her achingly gentle smile.

Lewis opened his eyes with a gasp, finding he was still in the sea cave, with Arthur and Vivi crouched beside him. Arthur’s smile was bright and full of relief as Vivi flung herself into a hug, wrapping her arms around him and clinging tightly.

“Hey, big guy,” Arthur took hold of the hand Lewis held out to him, his voice thick with emotion. “You has us worried. I guess salt water and fire ghosts are not particularly compatible.”

Lewis just shook his head, hauling Arthur down to join in the hug, so he could feel both of them, there and alive and with him. The thought of being alone, even amid the wonders of the Land of the Remembered, made him shake.

“You okay, big guy?” Arthur awkwardly patted his back.

“Fine,” he muttered, tightening his hold. “I’m fine, I just had the most… I guess you could call it a dream. It was strange.”

It was another few minutes before he could bear to let them go, and he stuck closer than a burr as they walked back to the entrance to the sea cave, as Vivi told him about Arthur stepping up and talking the ghost woman down and convincing her, not to drown anyone, but to leave those who were— less than innocent— hanging from the posts of the lifeguard’s tower to be rounded up by police, who would quickly figure out that those found this way were guilty of something.

Lewis clapped a blushing Arthur on the shoulder before he noticed Vivi had stopped to pick something up off the damp cave floor. “What did you find?” He asked, turning his gaze to her.

She held out something bright yellow in the palm of her hand. “I dunno, looks kinda like a marigold petal. I just don’t know what one would be doing in a cave by the ocean.”

Lewis looked at the bright spot of color in her palm and swallowed.  He silently resolved, that the next time they went back home for the Day of the Dead celebration, he would leave an extra offering in the graveyard for La Muerte… just in case.


	14. Out of Control

Sometimes he still wakes in the middle of the night, heart pounding in his ears and throat so tight he can’t breathe. The dreams are not always the same, but they all share a common thread, and a horrible one. The problem is they are not all nightmares. Most of them are memories— the loss of control over his own body as the invading spirit took it from him and used his own hand to murder Lewis; the inability to make his limbs move to his command when the cult had tried to rip the very soul from his body; the terrifying moment, when— to save his life from a foul revenant that would have feasted on his bleeding, damaged soul— Lewis had possessed him, hiding his wounded essence and walking his body out safely. Lewis had done it to save him, but that loss of control had very nearly destroyed him. He couldn’t… when that very thing had cost Lewis his life, had nearly cost him everything…  _no_.

So when he wakes sweating and cold with fear, he tests everything, from curling his toes and stretching his arm out, to counting his breaths to slow his racing heart, feeling  _everything_  to make sure his body is his and his  _alone_ , that everything still answers to his command. He’s never suffered from sleep paralysis, and for that, he thanks his lucky stars, because he’s pretty sure that would snap his sanity like a twig.

So when he wakes one night and can’t feel his right arm, it is not that his arm has fallen asleep that springs immediately to mind, but that lack of control and his heart turns into a hard lump in his chest and he cannot get a breath in past it. Terror blots out everything and he cannot even scream.

For an endless moment, he is trapped in a body that will not obey and he thinks that he will go mad…

And then Vivi snuffles sleepily against his neck, somehow managing to cling to him with what feels like more limbs than any one person should have. Her breath is warm on his skin and there is a damp spot under her cheek where she has drooled on him. There is a warm bulwark against his left side, a spectral anchor beating a steady rhythm against his ribs, nestled under the stump of the arm that will  _never again_  harm anyone that he loves. There is a warm furry weight on his feet, and ribs moving steadily against his toes.

Arthur cannot move, but all the same, the panic is receding. Because he is _here,_ grounded by those he loves more than anything, safe in their hold from anything. When Vivi shifts a little more and blood flow returns to the arm that was pinned under her weight, he relishes the pins and needles of returning sensation. Because even if he cannot move, he can feel them around him, anchoring him to the here and now and to his body. They are safety and love and his every sense is filled with their touch, their warmth grounding him.

They are his anchor, and in their embrace is the reassurance that he has not lost control again. Smiling, Arthur basks in their presence and lets his eyes close again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spawned by a conversation about Arthur always wanting to be in the middle of hugs. The idea of Arthur's soul having been removed (albeit briefly) comes from tumblr user ectoimp.


End file.
